Stevie Nicol has made it clear that Antonio Conte simply can’t play Fraser Forster despite Hugo Lloris’s abject form for Tottenham Hotspur, as he told ESPN.
The Anfield legend stated that Forster, who was a summer signing under Conte, just ‘isn’t good enough’ to don Tottenham Hotspur’s number-one gloves.
The 34-year-old has a vast amount of experience on the Premier League stage after representing Southampton and Celtic for over a decade, including reaping his country for six matches.
And since his move to Hotspur Way, he has started three games – League Cup, FA Cup and the Premier League.
Given Lloris’s late return from the World Cup, Forster started the 2-2 draw at Brentford on New Year’s Day, before the France international resumed his normal duties.
But since then, it has been nothing but disaster after disaster from the 2018 World Cup winner, including yet another mistake during Tottenham’s 4-2 defeat to Manchester City on Thursday night, but despite that, Nicol isn’t playing Forster ahead of Lloris.
“The problem he has right now is that he can’t bench him because you can’t play Forster,” said Nicol. “I am sorry, Forster isn’t good enough.
“You are not putting somebody in goal that’s on par with Lloris or better. That’s very hard to do from a coach’s point of view. Putting a guy in who you know is worse than the one you are taking out.
“But, unfortunately, they need to bring in another goalkeeper. Unless Lloris is playing out of his skin, it’s pretty simple, you just say to him about the goals he is losing. If he’s not happy and doesn’t get it, then you show them to him.”
FORSTER NEEDS TO COME IN
Aston Villa, Arsenal and Man City. Those are just the three games Lloris has made costly errors against post-World Cup.
That’s not even including his mistakes against the likes of Newcastle United and Sporting Lisbon at the start of the campaign.
The issue with Lloris is that he’s not even doing the basics right and it seems as though there is going to be a mistake every game.
Conte brought Forster in. He’s a number two, with experience. There’s no point in him sitting on the bench or training throughout the week if he’s not going to be used.
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